World English Bible · The judges
Judges 2
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came up from to Bochim. He said, "I brought you out of , and have brought you to the land which I to give your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my with you. You shall make no with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their .' But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.'" When spoke these words to all the , the people lifted up their voice and wept. They called the name of that place Bochim, and they there to . Now when had sent the people away, the each went to his to possess the land. The people all the days of , and all the days of the who outlived , who had seen all the great work of that he had worked for Israel. the son of , the , , being one hundred ten years old. They in the border of his in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of , on the north of the mountain of Gaash. After all that generation were gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who didn't know , nor the work which he had done for Israel. The did that which was evil in sight, and . They abandoned , the of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of , and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; and they provoked to . They abandoned , and and the . burned against Israel, and he them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their all around, so that they could no longer stand before their . Wherever they went out, hand was against them for evil, as had spoken, and as had to them; and they were very distressed. up judges, who them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they didn't listen to their judges; for they prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They quickly turned away from in which their fathers walked, obeying . They didn't do so. When up judges for them, then was with the judge, and them out of the hand of their all the days of the judge; for it grieved because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. But when the judge was , they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to them and to to them. They didn't cease what they were doing, or give up their ways. burned against Israel; and he said, "Because this nation transgressed my which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, I also will no longer drive out any of the nations that left when he from before them; that by them I may Israel, to see if they will keep way to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not." 23So left those nations, without driving them out hastily. He didn't them into hand.
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The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.